I just got around to watching this. What on earth is a comedian like Jeff Dunham doing hosting a baking competition?  Couldn't they find anybody else? Perhaps somebody who knows something about food? All I took away was it was a tie-in to the commercials that ran promoting his show that's coming to my area in early 2017.

I didn't like any of the contestants. There's always a "Brad" each year, a sort of non-descript dad-bod (I don't mean that to be cruel, just means an average guy) who is kind of average and might last a few weeks. This one went quicker than I expected. I thought that Tamara should have gone home instead. I couldn't believe how stupid she was to try to make red velvet cake with olive oil. Really? She seemed very slow-witted when she was speaking and trying to figure out how to correct her mistake.  She seemed slightly more with-it in the second round.

Then there is the smug professional baker, what's his name, Damian?  Sorry, but a culinary instructor who says, "expresso," loses complete cred in my eyes.  I am sure he'll go quite far though. I also didn't care for the arrogant woman from Texas or the pregnant biker chick with all of the tattoos, but she did produce some cool baked goods.  The woman with the long dark hair from California who was gushing over Damiano reminded me of Audrey from last year's competition.

So far, I have found nobody to pull for.

It was Sooooooo good to see Aunt Sandy strutting out in one of her outrageous costumes, but Damiano Downer had to spoil it by complaining about her butterfly wings. Anyway, I thought Sandra looked great and I'm so happy she's feeling healthy and strong enough to do this show.  But c'mon, this is a woman who added cranberry juice, flavored milk and extracts to boxed cake mix.  I cracked up at some of the faces she made when she tasted the offerings. I think her gut-level responses balanced well with Damiano's technical critiques.

I am not in the camp who thinks Damiano is a hottie.  I think he is dull and humorless. I know there is a lot at stake for the contestants, but he needs to lighten up and have some fun and not take himself so seriously.  It would be nice if he does like Duff and Lorraine do when they are judges, they can usually pinpoint what went wrong and explain how to correct it.

Carla is fine. She has the right balance of humor, constructive criticism and cooking chops to be behind the judging table.  It will probably take a couple of episodes for the three of them to find a rhythm.

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